My Boston

Friday, April 15, 2005

#45 Boston - Weather Jumble - April 15, 2005

Hello All,

I know that you might be tired of hearing about the lovely, but unpredictable Massachusetts weather, but this week has been and is definitely noteworthy. The signs of spring are here - absolute fact - and last weekend us New Englanders (actually probably just me) thought we had it nailed. The weather kept getting better and better, and on Sunday we enjoyed a very balmy 68 degrees, everyone was out and about, sandals were freed from the back of closets and the sound of children playing echoed in the streets. Monday morning, I put on my nice new spring blouse, and left the house with just a jacket, when I noticed everyone wearing their fleece and down jackets and a minute later a nice 42 degrees hit me in the face! What in the world?? It stayed cold most of Monday, warmed up a little on Tuesday morning, and when I left the hospital on Tuesday evening, I was greeted by snow flurries (yes, snow!!??!!). It has since warmed up again slowly, and we are expecting a nice warm weekend with temps in the upper 50s and even 70s for Sunday. For next Wednesday a high of 78 degrees is proposed. That folks, is spring in New England!

Aside from this hodgepodge of weather, it has been a good week off work and an operose one at work. The grant is coming back to haunt all of us as we are preparing for the NCI (National Cancer Institute - the folks with the dough) site visit in June. I am in the midst of preparing posters, making friends with many Excel spreadsheets and having flashbacks to February (not the good kind).

This past weekend, on account of the peachy weather, I headed to the most lovely city of Carlisle and Estabrook Woods, which consists of about 1200 acres of woodland, hills, ledges and swampland just a couple of miles north of Concord. The name was given to the forest area by none other than our friend David Henry Thoreau. Carlisle was first settled in the year 1650, is located about 40 minutes outside of Boston (20 Miles NW) and - interesting fact - 25% of the town is protected conservation land. (http://www.carlislehistory.org/history.html). I joined my friends from the Appalachian Mountain Club for a very agreeable hike, slightly muddy on occasion, dotted with gratifying conversations including some solid advice from an investment banker and a slight disagreement with the trip leader about pine trees. He was a bit of an odd duck, got lost a few times, and we backtracked quite a bit, so the 5 miles we hiked might have been a bit of an underestimate.

Upon returning home to Boston, I was not yet satisfied with the amount of physical activity for the day, so I headed out for a 5-mile run along the Charles River Esplanade, which was packed with roller bladers, bicyclists, joggers, dogs, cats, squirrels, you name it.
The snug weather on Sunday invited for a few things, but mostly for lazing and dilly-dallying, catching up on some reading. I spent the afternoon attending my friend Nakia's baby shower, "Little E" (Evan Jr.) is expected by the end of the month and we are all anxious to meet him.

On Tuesday night, I volunteered (sort of - we did not have to do that much....) with Boston Cares at the American Repertory Theater, this time at their Zero Arrow location between Harvard and Central Square (http://www.amrep.org/). The play was "Olly's Prison" by controversial and award-winning English playwright Edward Bond. His first play "Saved" which was produced by the UK's Royal Court Theater Group (1965) depicted the life of disenchanted youths who were driven to monstrous acts generated by the brutal economic conditions they faced. The play stirred up quite a scandal, and eventually led to the abolishment of censorship in theater plays in England. "Olly's Prison" (http://www.amrep.org/olly/) is an interesting play - and having a bit of distance in between now, I would say a very powerful one. The theme for me was that all the characters in the play were looking for some sort of order in their lives or in their minds in the midst of violence and turmoil. The actors were absolutely phenomenal, Bill Camp as Mike the main character, was an astonishing force on the stage, and so was Angela Reed. The performance was quite violent at times, either with its writing and words that were thrown at you with the potency of a whip or with the actual portrayal of violent acts. An amazing and exhausting experience.

On Thursday evening, I headed out to Weston - the site of some of my XC skiing and snowshoeing exploits in winter, which is now a golf course. The Charles River Canoe and Kayak folks had organized a slide show by the Maine Island Trail Association, featuring Maine's 100 public and private islands along the state's coast line. I will have to stock up on Dramamine and sea bands if I want to hop into a kayak and not get queasy, but the striking photographs will leave me no choice. MITA is a very cool organization, as their mission is to make all visitors (kayakers and boaters) "stewards" of these islands. They train visitors on low impact techniques and practices that assure that the fragile ecology of these islands will be preserved. (http://mita.org/index.php).

Hiking season has begun, and this weekend I will attend a couple of short hikes, Nashua, New Hampshire and Middlesex Fells, MA; there is a Sports and Fitness Expo at the Hynes Convention Center (on account of the Boston Marathon on Monday!) and meeting up with some friends, you know, just your average weekend. A little running also, as next week another road race awaits - the 1st Annual Back Bay Road Race! I will also be volunteering for the Boston Independent Film Festival in Somerville, so no shortage of entertainment there!

My friends, I hope you all have a nice weekend too. Be well and enjoy the great outdoors!

pet:)

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